Dealbreaker: students required to live on campus for 3 or even 4 years

[Anonymous]

Our family is narrowing the list of reach/match schools, and as part of this process, we are closely reading about the details of 'student life.'

It had someone escaped our attention that DS's #1 and #3 choices require students to live in on campus, in assigned housing, for 3 and 4 years, respectively. One of these schools goes on and on about how nobody is likely to get an exemption from that rule (unless you're married with kids, significant ADA issue that can't be accommodated, etc.). What the hell?

On a whim I went down his 'Maybe list' of 15 schools and I see that the 3 year requirement is not a rarity. The notable exceptions are giant state schools and/or California schools. Why would a university mandate that their 22, 23 yr old students live in little dorm rooms, potentially with a roommate, and have curfews, alcohol bans, visitor limits and so on? Not to mention limits on having a pet, having a car, and more.

[Anonymous]

Because they own the buildings and need the money. Alcohol bans I would imagine are in name only. He won’t know any different if everyone is living on campus.

[Anonymous]

I did this OP, it was great and fostered campus community.

If your dc doesn't want to do that, they can attend another university. Plenty of large state universities don't care what you do.

[Anonymous]

I went to a college like this. It was awesome! Jr and senior year we lived in apartment and brownstone style dorms so it was basically like living off campus. No rules regarding alcohol, visitors, etc. Only restriction was no pets. We could also have cars all 4 years

[Anonymous]

23 year olds are typically not in college.
Not sure what schools have curfews. I went to a SLAC that had on-campus housing for all 4 years. It was fabulous. No curfew. Juniors and seniors had really nice rooms. Or they had suites with friends. No worry about rent.

You’re making an issue out of nothing.

[Anonymous]

I went to a school like this. There was a really tight community, and it's really convenient to be able to walk to everything. If your daughter doesn't like it, she can just go somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

It's hard to imagine a parent getting all twisted up because her kid might not be able to get a cat or drink beer in his or her room senior year. Is this really a decision point, OP? Seriously?

[Anonymous]

When I was in college 40 years ago (16,000 student state university) it was unusual for undergrads to live off campus. This is pretty common for small LACs. Now that universities have gotten bigger, people expect to live on campus only one or two years.

[Anonymous]

I went to a college like this and it really fosters a sense of community. It also felt safer because the social life was centralized on campus so not a lot of driving/drunk driving. There was enough of a variety of dorms that most people weren't stuck with a roommate beyond freshman or sophomore year. Rooms were blocked in groups starting in the sophomore housing lottery so you can always live with friends in on-campus suites, apartments, or even a string of traditional single rooms.

[Anonymous]

If it’s a deal breaker, don’t bother applying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a college like this. It was awesome! Jr and senior year we lived in apartment and brownstone style dorms so it was basically like living off campus. No rules regarding alcohol, visitors, etc. Only restriction was no pets. We could also have cars all 4 years

Me too. Loved it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's hard to imagine a parent getting all twisted up because her kid might not be able to get a cat or drink beer in his or her room senior year. Is this really a decision point, OP? Seriously?

Yeah, I can't imagine making this a dealbreaker. I don't want my college kid getting a pet anyway, because I don't want to end up having to take care of it when they move after college or come home for the summer. I'm certainly not worried that my kid won't get to drink enough.

[Anonymous]

As previous poster mentioned, being on campus fosters a school bond. Also, many small college towns don't have significant off-campus living options. Also, knowing that there is guaranteed on-campus living options is great relief for many students since it is stressful and often very expensive to lease apartments (most leases run for 12-month, so students pay during the summer). As a parent, I also think it is a lot safer for kids to be on campus, and I would not send my kid to a school that did not have housing available to upperclassmen.

[Anonymous]

Another person who went to a school like this. There were no curfews and in fact alcohol policies were very very lax (security couldn’t smell your cup, so folks were drinking all the time just out of solo cups). Senior year we had on campus apartments. I really valued not having to worry about where I was living in all honesty.

This is a weird thing to cut a school out over….

[Anonymous]

I agree with OP. I went to a large state school and couldn't imagine living on campus after sophomore year.